Posted on 11/14/2010 3:38:40 PM PST by kristinn
A gay conservative group and some Tea Party leaders are campaigning to keep social issues off the Republican agenda.
In a letter to be released Monday, the group GOProud and leaders from groups like the Tea Party Patriots and the New American Patriots, will urge Republicans in the House and Senate to keep their focus on shrinking the government.
"On behalf of limited-government conservatives everywhere, we write to urge you and your colleagues in Washington to put forward a legislative agenda in the next Congress that reflects the principles of the Tea Party movement," they write to presumptive House Speaker John Boehner and Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell in an advance copy provided to POLITICO. "This election was not a mandate for the Republican Party, nor was it a mandate to act on any social issue."
The letter's signatories range from GOProud's co-founder and Chairman Christopher Barron a member of a group encouraging Dick Cheney to run for president and who has been known to post images of his bare torso to Twitter to Tea Party leaders with no particular interest in the gay rights movement.
As of Sunday evening, the letter had 17 signatories. They include tea party organizers, conservative activists and media personalities from across the country, including radio host Tammy Bruce, bloggers Bruce Carroll, Dan Blatt and Doug Welch, and various local coordinators for the Tea Party Patriots and other tea party groups.
"When they were out in the Boston Harbor, they weren't arguing about who was gay or who was having an abortion," said Ralph King, a letter signatory who is a Tea Party Patriots national leadership council member, as well as an Ohio co-coordinator.
King said he signed onto the letter because GOProud seemed to be genuine in pushing for fiscal conservatism and limited government.
"Am I going to be the best man at a same sex-marriage wedding? That's not something I necessarily believe in," said King. "I look at myself as pretty socially conservative. But that's not what we push through the Tea Party Patriots."
That indifference is essentially the point of the gay conservative group.
SNIP
TEXT OF LETTER
Dear Senator McConnell and Representative Boehner
On behalf of limited government conservatives everywhere we write to urge you and your colleagues in Washington to put forward a legislative agenda in the next Congress that reflects the principles of the Tea Party movement.
Poll after poll confirms that the Tea Partys laser focus on issues of economic freedom and limited government resonated with the American people on Election Day. The Tea Party movement galvanized around a desire to return to constitutional government and against excessive spending, taxation and government intrusion into the lives of the American people.
The Tea Party movement is a non-partisan movement, focused on issues of economic freedom and limited government, and a movement that will be as vigilant with a Republican-controlled Congress as we were with a Democratic-controlled Congress.
This election was not a mandate for the Republican Party, nor was it a mandate to act on any social issue, nor should it be interpreted as a political blank check.
Already, there are Washington insiders and special interest groups that hope to co-opt the Tea Partys message and use it to push their own agenda particularly as it relates to social issues. We are disappointed but not surprised by this development. We recognize the importance of values but believe strongly that those values should be taught by families and our houses of worship and not legislated from Washington, D.C.
We urge you to stay focused on the issues that got you and your colleagues elected and to resist the urge to run down any social issue rabbit holes in order to appease the special interests.
The Tea Party movement is not going away and we intend to continue to hold Washington accountable. Sincerely,
Christopher R Barron
Chairman of the Board, GOProud
Andrew Ian Dodge
Coordinator, Maine Tea Party Patriots
Pam Stevenson
Coordinator, Arizona Tea Party Patriots
Dianna Greenwood
Executive Director, New American Patriots (Ashland, OH)
Jim Mason II
Chairman and State Coordinator, Nebraskas Tea Party Patriots
Ralph King
Co-coordinator Cleveland Tea Party Patriots
Co-coordinator State of Ohio Tea Party Patriots
Jack Lien
Coordinator, Tea Party Patriots of Great Malls (Montana)
Tammy Bruce
National Radio Talk Show Host
JP Weber
Coordinator, Annapolis (Maryland) Tea Party
Doug Welch,
Blogger and member Southern Illinois Tea Party
Bruce Carroll
Conservative Activist and Blogger
Pam Stout
Coordinator, Sandpoint Idaho Tea Party Patriots
Dan Blatt
Conservative Activist and Blogger
Everett Wilkinson
Coordinator, Florida Tea Party
Jimmy LaSalvia
Executive Director, GOProud
Paul Crockett
President Santa Clara (California) Tea Party
David Thor Andreasen
Cumberland County (Maine) Tea Party
Thanks.
It doesn’t look like a comet to me. I just couldn’t figure out what the glowy part was.
All I could think of was kryptonite.
That’s fascinating.
So much for the *dirty snowball* theory, eh?
No, actually the money is not the #1 issue. God and the value of Life is the #1 issue and without Him, none of the other issues matter.
Restoring the country means restoring the place of God in final ultimate authority over us and our laws in peoples hearts.
Without that, all else is meaningless and won’t happen.
As the Founders knew, this country cannot stand if the people are Godless and immoral.
We will go nowhere but downhill if we do not quit sacrificing babies to Ba’al.
Exactly. Libertarianism, if put into practice, would quickly lead to anarchy and chaos, which would soon usher in jackbooted tyranny.
Most of the Log Cabin “Republicans” voted for 0bastard.
LOL!
Good call on that one. He outed himself from day one of his 8 short days here.
There could easily be a fiscally sound totalitarian government.
How many issues do you think congress will address next session? What would you have them focus on? Unlike you and me they can only address a handful of items and actually come to a conclusion. What would you have them focus on?
I think you were confused about the point I was making. I fully support all that Jim and Free Republic stand for and are trying to accomplish. Unfortunately our government is divided between liberals and less than liberals (or at least has been). I have high hopes for the next session. However, I want them to focus on fiscal policy first before getting locked in a never ending debate on some other social issue that will do nothing to improve our current and future economic state.
If you want to zot me for that then please call Jim into this conversation and let him decide if I’m out of line.
That’s because while they are telling everybody NOT to focus on ‘social’issues(abortion, man/woman marriage) and not to be single issue voters, they are focusing on social issues (homosexual marriage, homosexuals in military, homosexual ‘rights’) and voting single issue canidates.
“The problem comes in when people refuse to voluntarily restrict their behavior out of courtesy for others.”
Bingo, we have a winner. When an alcoholic goes home beats his wife, goes to jail, then to count and pleads “society made me do it therefore the government must make amends”, I draw the line. Or gets fired for being drunk on the job and the nanny state says I have to hire him back put through treatment even though my insurance rates will go up, I draw the line.
HAHAHAHAHA!!!! I told him he stunk at being a troll. I knew his days were numbered! They are going to come in droves now that Barry is damaged goods. Their damage control will fail and they will find out that Jim Robinson and most Freepers are smarter and more astute than they are. Most Freepers seems to be able to smell a troll a mile away. Obots beware, the Kitties are on the prowl.
Darn, I was all set to out him. Well, good, saved me the work and he’s history.
You can actually sort of smell them through the ethers.
Those pushing the homosexual and other leftist social agendas are already demonically driven to win. The only reason they’ve made so many inroads is because we (generally speaking) have let them due to cowardice.
So these people are saying to do even less, and let them win even more!
When fighting with an enemy, advice to give up or become a pacifist is treason.
You could be right. I don’t know. I didn’t vote for him. I found out who he was when he was speaking to the far left during the primaries.
I'm not saying I don't want my fellow man to better constrain his animalistic urges but I certainly don't want government to enforce his behavior.
The Pink Swastika is a powerful exposure of pre-World War II Germany and its quest for reviving and imitating a Hellenistic-paganistic idea of homo-eroticism and militarism.
Dr. Mordechai Nisan, Hebrew University of Jerusalemhttp://www.defendthefamily.com/pfrc/books/pinkswastika/html/the_pinkswastika_4th_edition_-_final.htm
“They are moral and ethical issues (issues of right and wrong) which cannot be overlooked because they undermine and attack what America is and stands for.”
Exactly! Anyone with functioning neurons knows we have to focus on the economy due to the severity of the problem....but we do NOT turn our backs on the serious ethical issues which emanate from the philosophical principles upon which a healthy society is based.
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